Is God Your Friend?
Purpose Driven Life #11
Cornwall/Montreal
October 25, 2003
You are not, primarily, a servant of God. But you are, primarily, a child of the living God and, as a child of God’s family, you have available to you the closest friendship relationship possible. You are designed to be God’s friend. We have difficulty with this idea, though, because God is all that He is and we are who we are and we find it difficult to reconcile the two. We find it difficult to imagine being a friend of the one who created the vast universe. This simply seems too great to imagine.
Romans 5.10, however, tells us that we have been brought to friendship by the deliverance we received.
Think about what life was like in Eden. Do you see anything but harmony? Until sin entered, there is a picture of peace and harmony. This is evident in a contrast that is given- Gen.3.7, 8. Something was radically different now. But this tells us that they had spent time with God in conversation and friendship. There had been harmony. Now, something was different, but before, it had been more wonderful. God walked in the garden and they talked together. There were no rituals or ceremonies or religion. There was just a relationship of love between God and the people he created. There was no guilt or fear- that came when sin entered. Adam and Eve enjoyed friendship with God and He with them. This tells us what was intended. To live continually in God’s presence is what we were made for, but this was lost after sin entered in the garden.
How do we regain this? Is it possible? We were made for it and we have been restored, through Jesus’ death, which indicates that we can make the way back to what was supposed to be. But how do we do this?
We don’t see a lot of this through the majority of the Bible. The Bible is a big book, and there’s not a lot of friendship with God in it. Only a few were called God’s friend- people like Moses and Abraham. David, Job, Enoch, and Noah, also, entered that distinguished group. But there is more fear than friendship in the OT. Think about all that was necessary for priest and people to even come into the presence of God- that doesn’t engender feelings and experiences of close friendship. Think of how close you wouldn’t feel to someone if you had to prepare special meals, wait for special times, burn special candles, wear special clothes, and take special baths before you could even come to where that person was. That would not encourage close friendship, would it? This is the way it was through most of the history of the Bible. For even the priests to come before God required all this, and the people were kept even a little farther away.
However, Romans 5.11 tells us that this has changed, and we are thankful for this change.
2 Cor.5.18a tells us that we are friends and this is because of what Jesus did! He’s the key in everything, isn’t He? We know that Jesus is a friend- so is our Father and so is the Holy Spirit helper and comforter. Jesus called his disciples- and us- friends- John 15.15. This wasn’t the typical relationship of those who followed a rabbi or teacher in those days. They were learners, disciples, students- but not friends. Jesus set a different standard and way and this continues to today and us. When Jesus called them his ‘friends’ he used a word that speaks of closeness and trust in a relationship. This is the same word used of the best man at a wedding or of those of an inner circle of friends around a leader (king, Prime Minister). People like to boast about lots of different things. People boast about income, homes, health, vehicles, and many other things. However, God tells us what we are to really boast about:
Jer.9.24- this is what really matters. This is what you and I have been created for. This is what we are to seek. To be God’s friend is the greatest honour and the highest calling we have. God wants you as his friend. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. How do you go about being a closer friend of God? Remember that you are already a friend because you’ve accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for you. But what do you need to do to cement and build that friendship now?
1. Converse with God. There’s no way to be close to God by simply attending church each week or even by just having a time ‘for God’ each day. As with any friendship, sharing of life together is necessary. We all know the need to have some time in each day for God, and that’s a discipline necessary for each of us. But, beyond that, bring God with you to each activity of each day. We tend to think in boxes and some writings of Christians who have sought to have God with them always can be helpful for us. There is a process that is quite foreign to much of our thinking, yet which can become a source of incredible strength and joy to us.
For years, I’ve heard of Brother Lawrence and “The Practice o the Presence of God”, but I hadn’t read this, until this past week. He was a Christian in the 1600s, yet has something to say to us today. (Read of his beginning- short biography.)
Read- p.37ff
This is not easy to do and takes discipline, in developing a relationship with God, to a different level. Many of us tend to put ‘quiet time’ as a ‘to do’, and then, when it’s done, we go on to other things of the day and can go quite some time without giving a lot of thought to God. This is quite normal in our western world, from what I understand of ‘western world people’. In our busy society, we’d say something about the idea that we can’t focus on God all the time. We have to earn a living. We have to attend to other matters. However, here is someone who practiced and who sought God’s presence very actively in everything and at all times.
Paul encouraged us to this kind of prayer- 1 Thes.5.17. Again, this is hard for us. It is hard for us to consciously be thinking about God and His presence while we’re in school, while we’re doing whatever our jobs might be, while we’re driving to and from, while we’re watching a television program. Yet, this is the call. ‘Without ceasing’ means not stopping, always, continually. It means conversing with God in all situations. It means always spending time with God.
I have not mastered this, so I don’t say this as someone who has. However, it is something I strive toward. I believe that there is a different approach to matters of faith found in scripture, sometimes, than we might find easy to attain. Yet, the fact that it’s not easy or different from our tradition or practice does not mean that it isn’t worthwhile and that we shouldn’t pursue it with some fervor, even. We need to spend lots of time with God. We need to converse with God continually.
Again, thinking of Eden and Adam and Eve. Their worship was not a weekly event they attended, but was a constant and continual ‘walking with God’. What they gave up was amazing and is only available again now, through Jesus.
Which brings us to something to encourage us in our ‘praying without ceasing’. Remember that Jesus IS in each of us, and as we seek Him and His Father, He intervenes and makes up for our lacks. He is in constant communion with our mutual Father. He, in us, is praying without ceasing.
Remember how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us?
Ro. 8.26- there are times when we’re incapable of communicating what needs to be communicated with our friend, God. His Spirit, somehow, combines with our spirit to get said what needs saying from us to Him and from Him to us, too.
So, what is this all about? What is this ‘praying without ceasing’ all about? It’s about being constantly aware of God and constantly involved with Him. Through our discipline (self control- Ga.5.23)- remember that’s one fruit of the Spirit- and the activity of Christ in us, our hope of glory, we will be in constant prayer. We will be in constant communication with our God.
2. Think about God. This is key to a good friendship. In the closest friendships, we are always thinking of the friend.
Last Sunday, I did some cleaning of my ‘stuff’ and found a journal I had used during college when I was dating Lynn. I was thinking about her all-the-time back then, and thinking very deeply, I found. It was good to read, again, what I had written.
Thinking, like this, is called meditation, when it comes to God. Is meditation just mind wandering? No, it isn’t most of the time. Sometimes, it might be, but, hopefully, into things of God. God has given us his word and from that, we learn about him. God reveals himself to us through his word.
Psa.25.14- we reverence God by thinking about what he says to us. Meditation is like taking a fine diamond and looking at it from various angles. In doing this, you see things, from one angle, that you don’t from another and the richness of this diamond is increased. Read God’s word, and then plan to think about something from what you’ve read. The highest relationship with God is available to us!
David, for instance, did this.
Psa.119.97- he thought over what God said to him.
Psa.77.11, 12- he thought over all the wonderful deeds God did in his life. This is good for us, too. We need to think over and remember what God has done in our lives- don’t forget- write them down, if necessary. To forget how God has been involved is a huge crime against him. People who turn their backs on God seem to have forgotten what he did in their lives- they ought to remember and to return to God. We can’t live without God- we need God- we were made for a relationship with God.
Conclusion
God is not an ‘add on’ in our lives. He is not something we got through an ‘up-sell’ to something a little better than we had before. God is our all- he’s where our lives are going- to his wonderful kingdom. We need to declare the good news of that soon-coming kingdom, in our lives and to others, through our devotion to Him. I was thinking about that which was a big part of our church’s message when I became converted, and have been thinking of late that the same energy we put into that message then- for me, back in 1970 and 1971- is for now, too. We get to be God’s friend, and we get to have that friendship forever! Isn’t that something to shout from the rooftops and to help others into?
